SUMMER CHALLENGE II: ACROSS AMERICA

My 2016 Earned Runs bib number 3 (of 4), used to chart each week's progress ACROSS AMERICA. Taken by PKSenagore May 15, 2017. All rights reserved.

SUMMER CHALLENGE II Run/Walk ACROSS AMERICA:
Start:  Memorial Day, May 29, at Astoria OR
Finish: Labor Day, September 5, at Portland ME
 
Rather not train all summer for yet another a long-distance race in the fall? Bored by running a mile every single day? Hoping to get your friends or children interested in running, walking, or cycling with you, and sharing a goal?
 
Take a VIRTUAL journey ACROSS AMERICA on foot (or bicycle), approximately 3600 miles long, in this challenge!  Enjoy the ‘sights’, learn the geography and history of parts of America you’ve may never have visited. Use this challenge to hold yourself to a fitness schedule of RUNNING, WALKING, and/or CYCLING all through the summer months. Earned Runs has created a calendar (see *acknowledgment) that involves committing to 2 to 3 sessions/week.
 
Participants will choose how they wish to “scale” the miles (1 real mile run/ walked = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 100 miles on the map).  There is an itinerary chart that shows the distance to be traveled for each of 39 segments over 15 weeks by each scale calculation.
 
The scale system was created so that each person could run/walk the entire ‘distance’ according to their fitness level.  Persons of different abilities can participate in the challenge together, by each using a different scale.
 
Example:
Segment 1 takes travelers from Astoria OR to Portland OR. The actual distance on the map is roughly 100 miles. The distances participants can choose to run/walk for this challenge are:
 
- 10 miles (10:1 ratio; for every 10 miles on the map, you run/walk 1 mile)
        or
- 5 miles (20:1 ratio; for every 20 miles on the map, you run/walk 1 mile)
         or
- 3.3 miles (30:1 ratio; for every 30 miles on the map you run/walk 1 mile)
         or
- 2.5 miles (40:1 ratio; for every 40 miles on the map, you run/walk 1 mile)
         or
2 miles (50:1 ratio; for every 50 miles on the map, you run/walk 1 mile)
        or
- 1 mile (100:1 ratio; for every 100 miles on the map, you run/walk 1 mile)
 
Use Earned Runs bibs to record completion of each segment!
 
Each Sunday there will be a BLOG post about that week's segment, providing a bit of information on the ground to be covered. If YOU know the part of the country the challenge will be moving through, you can COMMENT, sharing your knowledge and expert insights with everyone else. If not, you might be inspired to research more deeply into the sights, topography, environment, people, and culture of that part of the trail.
 
Hopefully this challenge will work well for families, with children using a different scale than adults, as needed. Children of various ages can run/walk distances best suited to their fitness and ability to focus on the day’s goal. It may be that in some families it’s the parents who require the highest handicap!
 
This challenge is a simple way to visually chart progress made while exercising (running/walking or cycling) over the entire summer on a map across the continent.  The cumulative miles will allow ‘travel’ from west to east across the broad expanse of the northern United States, through different regions. It’s a fun way to learn more about what’s there!
 
Having a planned ‘itinerary’ provides structure to the summer’s running/walking or cycling fitness activity.. And the scale system makes it possible for each participant to choose how strenuous this ‘trip’ will be. The ACROSS AMERICA Calendar and Itinerary drafts ARE POSTED on the RESOURCES PAGE for you to preview. Check out the SEGMENT MAPS for weeks 1-3, also posted there, and free for download.
 
LAST YEAR: I took up this challenge in the summer of 2016 and started by running all my miles on the 10:1 scale. I was training for a race as well and doing the STREAK running. Eventually I found it easier and more enjoyable to walk some miles, if I could not get them covered by running, on certain days. This year I may try to cycle some of them.
 
It’s all about the JOURNEY in this challenge.
 
RUN HAPPY!

ACROSS AMERICA ITINERARY draft
ACROSS AMERICA CALENDAR draft
ACROSS AMERICA SEGMENT MAPS draft Weeks 1-3
 
NOTES:

1. Change the mile ratio as needed: don’t be shy about adjusting the scale you will follow as you go; start with one scale and drop down or move up to another if the effort is harder or easier, respectively, to fit into your schedule than you first imagined it would be.

 

1. Cover the miles RUNNING or WALKING exclusively, or a combination of both. Since this is a bicycle tour, you can cover the miles by CYCLING as well (on the road or in a studio) or a portion of them (see my experience above, in “LAST YEAR”). 

 
AKNOWLEDGEMENT: The route is an itinerary for a bicycle tour that’s been publically posted on the internet. The TREKTRAVEL company worked to develop it, and hosts the tour and many others.  Last year Earned Runs contacted the company through email to provide notification of our use of the plan. There was no response. The same attempt has been made this year as well.

http://trektravel.com/trip/cross-country-usa-bike-tour/